Bradley Int'l Airport Passenger Traffic Best Since 9/11

HARTFORD -- Bradley International Airport saw a 9.5 percent increase in passenger volume in 2005, according to airport officials.

"This is exciting," Kiran Jain, director of marketing and development for Bradley International, said during a presentation Tuesday to the Transportation Strategy Board at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. "Consumer confidence is up and we have added service on several new routes."

The new routes include service to Los Angeles; Columbus, Ohio, and Fort Myers, Fla., and helped the airport see 7.4 million passengers go through its gates last year. That's the highest number since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, after which airline traffic plummeted.

National average growth rates for airports were between 2 percent and 4 percent, Jain said.

For 2006, Bradley is likely to see about 4 percent growth in passenger volume, she said.

The top priority for this year, Jain said, is to start a transatlantic service, because this would "open doors to the rest of the world."

Aside from getting an international carrier to come to Bradley, Kevin Kelleher, chairman of the state's Transportation Strategy Board, said challenges include increasing costumer flow from the rest of the state, as well as establishing at the airport restaurants, clubs and more parking -- all facilities international travelers would demand.

Capturing travelers who fly out of New York or Boston is another goal, Jain said, adding that more airlines would consider Bradley if her team could show them the numbers in the potential market. The first step is to conduct parking lot surveys to figure out who flies out of Bradley, and that is now being done.

"The mind set of people in Fairfield (county) is to fly out of New York," she said.

Even so, there has been a slight increase -- about 2 percent -- in people from Fairfield using Bradley, she added.

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